Re: Super Serial Support in Emulator (How to use it???)

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Robert L. Doerr wrote:

>> > The software that controls it is FORTH.  I expect that much of the
>> > underlying drivers and interpreter are written in assembly.  No source
>> > has been uncovered for it.  If I can find an emulator that supports
>> 
>> I'm kind of curious about some of the file names. Is this dos or prodos
>> based software?
>> What is the load sequence of the files. A disassembly of the SSC driver
>> could tell a lot.
>
>I don't believe this particular disk is in either DOS or PRODOS
>format.  It
>is a variant of FORTH and has its own built-in utility for managing
>the disks.
>If perhaps the section of code could be isolated that talks to the
>Serial port is it likely that it could be patched?  Either that or it
>might point to a simple enhancement to an existing emulator to allow
>it to work as well.
>
>> Another point. You can detect the SSC but there is no way to tell if it is
>> configured for modem or terminal. The software manual should instruct on
>the
>> setup.
>> As such it is not uncommon for the software to to ask for a slot # and to
>> store that in a configuration file. It might also insist the card be in a
>> specific slot.
>
>I'm not sure how it looks for the SuperSerial board.  Was there a
>common function call to the OS to identify it or did it have to check
>memory for a signature?  When the program boots it looks for a
>SuperSerial card in the configured slot.  If it donesn't find it it
>will respond that it can't find a SuperSerial card in slot #x.  There
>is a FORTH command to change the slot it uses:
>
>Configure SuperSerial in slot #4:
>
>4 SETUP-SERIAL-SLOT
>SAVE-FORTH
>
>Configure SuperSerial in slot #2:
>
>2 SETUP-SERIAL-SLOT
>SAVE-FORTH

It seems that this is a Forth disk, not a DOS 3.3 or ProDOS disk.

In order to understand what is going on, you will have to learn some
Forth.  A good starting place would be to learn how to list "pages"
and then list the page containing SETUP-SERIAL-SLOT.  That will
almost certainly point you to the code that manipulates the SSC.

Studying that code will tell you what needs to be done to wiggle
the wires of the serial port to control the IR pod.

Or, it may show you that very little special magic is involved, and
it can be easily worked around.

The biggest obstacle will be getting familiar with Forth, since
virtually all the code is going to be in Forth.

The good news is that Google will find you lots of places to
start your exploration.  ;-)

-michael

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